Priests linked to abuse of 11,000 US children

Nearly 4500 Roman Catholic priests have been accused of sexually abusing 11,000 children in the United States between 1950 and 2002, a study commissioned for American Catholic bishops has found.

Those figures are two to three times more than had been previously reported, but senior Catholic officials have warned for weeks that the study's findings could be startling if viewed in isolation.

The findings, reported by CNN on Monday, are due to be released later this month by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

While victims' groups contend the numbers of victims and abusers are probably even higher, Catholic leaders say that no other large religious group, corporation or profession has conducted a similar self-examination.

"We're the only institution in the country that has done a study like this, so it's hard to compare," said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington.

The study was commissioned 11 months ago by the National Review Board, a panel of prominent lay Catholics appointed by the bishops conference. The board hired researchers at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York to collect and analyse confidential data reported voluntarily by US dioceses.

The goal was to produce the first full accounting of the "nature and scope" of sex abuse in the church, including: the number of accused priests; the number, age and gender of the alleged victims; and how much money the church has spent on legal fees, settlements and psychological counselling.

Worried that someone might leak partial data to advance a particular cause, the review board warned last year that if any findings were made public before February 27, it would immediately release the entire study to avoid any misrepresentation.

But the board backed away from that position on Monday. Its members declined to confirm or deny the CNN report, but suggested that CNN might have obtained preliminary figures that John Jay researchers gave to some board members to help write a companion report on the "causes and context" of the scandal.

'It's obvious there are many, many victims out there who have yet to come forward.
- DAVID CLOHESSY, Survivors Network

A board member, former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta, said: "We're all a little frustrated that this thing has leaked out." Noting that the CNN report contained a brief summary of the scandal's possible causes, he said: "It appears that somebody is piecing together bits of information."

CNN's report gave only a smattering of details and no information on the financial cost of the scandal or the gender of the victims. It said 78 per cent of the 11,000 alleged victims were between the ages of 11 and 17, 16 per cent were 8 to 10 years old, and nearly 6 per cent were aged 7 or younger.

Of the 4450 accused priests, it said more than half faced a single allegation, 25 per cent faced two or three allegations, 13 per cent had four to nine allegations, and 3 per cent had 10 or more allegations.

David Clohessy, national director of the 4600-member Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said that if more than half the priests faced a single allegation, "then it's obvious there are many, many victims out there who have yet to come forward".